Obama and pro-lifers

In case you haven’t been following the story, here’s a pretty decent summary of the Notre Dame scandal. I don’t understand why a Catholic institution would go out of its way to honour the least pro-life president in recent memory. Apparently, I am not alone.

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Andrea adds: There’s this in today’s Post, too, about Obama and the honorary degree, and his position on abortion:

If there is any abortion–anywhere, at any time, for any reason– that President Obama does not think should be legal and funded by the government if need be, he has not indicated it thus far.

Comments

As opposed to President Bush who is “pro-life”, invaded Iraq illegally, is responsible for the death of thousands of iraqi men, women, children, the death of over 4,000 of our american soldiers and over 20,000 who are seriously injured. So the “pro-life” movement in the U.S was very happy with George W. Bush i guess cause if you are out of the womb then it doesn’t matter what happens to you. Especially if you are some poor person in some poor country.

jr’s comment can be boiled down to the question, I believe, of “why aren’t pro-lifers all pacifists?” And to that, I would answer that most pro-lifers would be against a war waged entirely against innocent women and children.

But the question of whether one supported the invasion of Iraq is pretty apples and oranges.

Indeed, opposition to Obama’s lenient position on abortion has nothing to do with Bush.

Obama, I believe, has a very very strong Will to Disbelieve on what life in the womb is and means. Probably has quite a lot to do with who elected him (Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood, etc.)

There’s a pretty extensive body of literature on Just War theory, about which most religious have thoughtful positions. These same religions also place a high value on innocent life, and it doesn’t get much more innocent than an unborn child. If you’re interested in a serious look at how and when people and countries that value life are moved to support a war. Which I kind of doubt jr is.

No, I didn’t ask why pro-lifers aren’t pacifists. Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice everyone should defend themselves when attacked. I don’t know what it’s like in Canada but I think it’s interesting because in the United States, democrats and liberals opposed the war ( who are mostly pro-choice to a degree) were demonized and called traitors, anti-american, cowards and accused of “cut and run” by republicans(who’s base is conservative and pro-life). Those same pro-lifers support torture. So I think the parallel is there. Those same pro-lifers supported John Mccain and Sarah Palin who are very supportive of the war in Iraq. So, it’s hypocritical for these pro-lifers to now be outraged over pro-choice President Obama who opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning and cares about quality of life of men, women and children well after you are outside of the womb. This is another example that proves that pro-lifers only care about “life” when it’s in the womb. Once you are outside, they don’t about people especially not women or children. Pro-lifers tend to have a religious agenda and want to impose those beliefs on women. Their solution to unplanned or unwanted pregnancy is to slut shame, and punish women for not following their rules.

jr, I’m pro-life, I’m not religious, I don’t support either of the wars the US is currently waging, and I’m tired of the intellectually lazy way that pro-choicers assume that if I believe one thing, I must believe a bunch of other, completely unrelated things.

Being pro-life means opposing abortion. Find a dictionary; look it up. I also happen to oppose the wars and the death penalty, but those are different issues and I oppose them for different reasons. Saying “Pro-lifers aren’t pro-life because they support war” is neither logical nor true and doesn’t engage the actual issue at the heart of abortion, namely: Abortion is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being and is therefore ethically wrong.

An awful lot of pro-lifers did in fact vote for Obama, hoping, I think, that he would not only bring the wars to an end but also reduce the number of abortions in the US through more equitable social policies. We’ll continue to hope on both those fronts.